Chronic medication does not affect hyperactive error responses in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Abstract

Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) show an increased error-related negativity (ERN), yet previous studies have not controlled for medication use, which may be important given evidence linking performance monitoring to neurotransmitter systems targeted by treatment, such as serotonin. In an examination of 19 unmedicated OCD patients, 19 medicated OCD patients, 19 medicated patient controls without OCD, and 21 unmedicated healthy controls, we found greater ERNs in OCD patients than in controls, irrespective of medication use. Severity of generalized anxiety and depression was associated with ERN amplitude in controls but not patients. These data confirm previous findings of an exaggerated error response in OCD, further showing that it cannot be attributed to medication. The absence in patients of a relationship between ERN amplitude and anxiety/depression, as was found in controls, suggests that elevated error signals in OCD may be disorder-specific.

Performance monitoring in obsessive–compulsive undergraduates: Effects of task difficulty

“…The initial hypothesis that ERN and CRN would be enhanced in the high OC group (at least in the easy level) was not confirmed. This stands in contrast to previous studies showing enhanced ERN amplitudes in subjects with high obsessive-compulsive characteristics (Grundler et al, 2009;Hajcak & Simons, 2002;Kaczkurkin, 2013;Santesso et al, 2006) as well as patients with OCD Endrass et al, 2008Endrass et al, , 2010Gehring et al, 2000;Hajcak et al, 2008;Johannes et al, 2001;Klawohn et al, 2014;Mathews et al, 2012;Riesel et al, 2011Riesel et al, , 2014Stern et al, 2010;Xiao et al, 2011). However, the current findings add to a growing number of studies that failed to replicate overactive performance monitoring in OCD and OC under specific conditions (Grundler et al, 2009;Kaczkurkin, 2013;Mathews et al, 2012;Nieuwenhuis et al, 2005;O'Toole et al, 2012).…”

“…To fulfill diagnostic criteria for OCD these symptoms have to be time consuming and accompanied by significant functional impairments (APA., 2013). In accordance with a dimensional approach to psychopathology enhanced ERN amplitudes have been observed in both patients with OCD (Endrass, Klawohn, Schuster, & Kathmann, 2008;Endrass, Riesel, Kathmann, & Buhlmann, 2014;Endrass et al, 2010;Gehring, Himle, & Nisenson, 2000;Hajcak, Franklin, Foa, & Simons, 2008;Johannes et al, 2001;Klawohn, Riesel, Grutzmann, Kathmann, & Endrass, 2014;Mathews, Perez, Delucchi, & Mathalon, 2012;Riesel, Endrass, Kaufmann, & Kathmann, 2011;Stern et al, 2010;Xiao et al, 2011) and healthy individuals with obsessivecompulsive characteristics (Grundler, Cavanagh, Figueroa, Frank, & Allen, 2009;Hajcak & Simons, 2002;Kaczkurkin, 2013;Santesso, Segalowitz, & Schmidt, 2006). However, other studies have not observed the typical enhancement of ERN amplitudes with obsessive-compulsive symptoms (Grundler et al, 2009;Hammer, Kordon, Heldmann, Zurowski, & Munte, 2009;Kaczkurkin, 2013;Mathews et al, 2012;Nieuwenhuis, Nielen, Mol, Hajcak, & Veltman, 2005;O'Toole, Weinborn, & Fox, 2012).…”

The influence of anhedonia on feedback negativity in major depressive disorder

“…In addition, the use of different types of medication influence the response of error-related negativity (ERN), an ERP component which follows response errors and is thought to share a neural source network with FN (Gentsch, Ullsperger, & Ullsperger, 2009;Holroyd & Coles, 2002). Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors appear not to affect ERN amplitude (de Bruijn, Sabbe, Hulstijn, Ruigt, & Verkes, 2006;Stern et al, 2010), while benzodiazepines may decrease ERN (de Bruijn, Hulstijn, Verkes, Ruigt, & Sabbe, 2004;Johannes, Wieringa, Nager, Dengler, & Munte, 2001;Schrijvers et al, 2008) and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors may increase ERN (Jocham & Ullsperger, 2009;Riba, Rodriguez-Fornells, Morte, Munte, & Barbanoj, 2005). In this study, the relatively severe depressive symptoms of participants in the patient group and antidepressant treatment might have influenced the results.…”

Brain systems underlying the affective and social monitoring of actions: An integrative review

“…Using standard interference tasks, several ERP studies have reported greater ERN/Ne (and often CRN) components in patients with anxiety or internalizing disorders (Krueger et al, 2001), including obsessive compulsive disorders (Carrasco et al, 2006;Endrass et al, 2008;Endrass et al, 2010;Gehring et al, 2000;Hajcak and Simons, 2002;Johannes et al, 2001;Stern et al, 2010), depression (Aarts et al, in press), and generalized anxiety disorders (Weinberg et al, 2010). Likewise, even healthy participants with higher levels of subclinical trait anxiety were shown to have increased ERN and CRN components (Aarts and Pourtois, 2010;Hajcak et al, 2003a;Moser et al, 2013).…”